Although it was a tiny move, passenger traffic at Louis Armstrong International Airport last year posted the first increase since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks brought the air travel industry to a standstill.

The increase was about three-tenths of 1 percent, but airport officials said any increase compares favorably with a 2.7 percent decline nationwide, as reported by the Air Transport Association, a trade group that represents airlines.

In all, 9.28 million travelers passed through Armstrong's terminals last year, up from 9.25 million in 2002.

Though last year's total was 6 percent less than in 2000, the airport's busiest year, Aviation Director Roy Williams is optimistic about this year.

"Based on the strong numbers we had in October, November and December, I'm expecting a strong percentage increase in the single digits this year," he said.

Armstrong was the nation's 40th-busiest airport in terms of the number of passengers boarding planes in 2002, the latest year for which comparable data are available, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

increase in passengers, followed by American and American Eagle, with a 12.9 percent increase.

Williams said that United Airlines' low-fare carrier, Ted, will begin service to Armstrong soon, and that he thinks Song, Delta Air Lines' entry into that market, will begin serving the airport next year as well.

Even though passenger traffic was flat, airlines' increasing use of smaller "regional jets" led to an 11 percent increase in takeoffs and landings at the airport in December and a 2.1 percent increase for the year. Regional

jets, which have 50 to 90 passenger seats compared with 150 on a traditional passenger aircraft, are cheaper to operate and can add flexibility to airline schedules.

The number of air carrier flight operations in New Orleans increased from 116,708 in 2002 to 119,127 last year.

The amount of air cargo passing through the airport in 2003 dropped 3.9 percent to 80,831 metric tons compared with 2002.

Since you brought up DL 777's, what baffels me is that CO has more 777 than DL. You would think that since DL and CO are codeshare partners, you would see them using thier 777's together. DL only has 7 777's where as I think CO has 22.

IndustrialPate you are so rude to everyone on this fourm. I mentioned nothing about 777's to MSY in this post. It happens that VC745D stated his opinion about 777's at MSY. I replied back to him saying (well if you read the posts) you will see what I replied back to him. But obvisouly you don't, so here is what I said back to him "I was not going there with this post." There being 777's to MSY. So get your facts straight before you start laying into people. Your reply was TOTALLY uncalled for and directed to the wrong person. But if you want a comment from me about 777's at MSY heres one:

Oh come on now IP...UAL could fill a 744 to BTR on Friday evenings during LSU football season!

Cmckeithen, yes, we have had numerous 777 visits here, all charter flights or diversions. I wouldn't hold my breath for scheduled 777 service into MSY by 2006. Perhaps 7-10 years down the road, but not by '06. Look for more 757/67 flying before we see the big boys.

Cmckeithen--you're an easy one to tease. I was born on Prytania St, remember flying Capital and others from the original quonset hut, spent many days hanging out at MSY from the time I could take a streetcar and two buses to get there, all the while dreaming of NOLa becoming a major destination, with 707s (of which there were few) and DC8s nonstop to everywhere on earth. Once I moved to NYC after college in 1979 I realized that as much as I love it, N.O. is a small city. If you want big planes, move to a big city. At least until 2006.

The market here currently is not suited for scheduled 777 service. Should, and I reiterate should, an airline choose to start a Europe nonstop, it would probably be with 763ER or A332 equipment. The 777 has way too many premium seats for our market. Sure the economy section could probably fill, but not up front.

As far as I would LOVE to see 777's here on a daily basis, our population and business base is not at the level for it to remain feasible at this time.

Give it time. As VC745D said, we are not a big city in the grand scheme of things, but what it boils down to is this: Having a certain type of aircrft fly to your airport does not make the city a better or worse place.

Its all rediculous. Yall can tell me that we are situated between the IAH, DFW and ATL markets. Yall can tell me that its not all about pax's. Yall can tell me that I am out of my mind. But that won't set my mind in a different direction. We can and we will support 777 service (and whatever big boys yall want to call it). I see this happening by 2006. And we will also see more international travel by 2006 or 2007.

Every one is just afraid to admit that we will see this happen rather quickly. It is not un-realistic.

To tell you the truth...I believe that CO should operate a 777 from MSY-EWR on one of thier daily non-stop flights. If not that a 764 or even a 753. Since DL opereates 763 to ATL from MSY, CO should operate 7674's from MSY-IAH.

Once the idiots at CO wake up and realize the gigantic overlooked potential of N.O. by putting 20 777s a day EWR-MSY I'll still look for a n/s from LGA first. I don't know anyone in NY who'd fly anywhere from EWR or JFK if they couldn't get on a n/s from LGA, especially on a short trip such as NYC-MSY.